#Chapter 388 – Good morning, Cora!
Ella
“Really, Cora?” I say, nudging my sister with my toe. I shake my head at my sister’s naked sleeping form, pressed against her mate under the single little throw blanket that’s tossed over both of them. Seriously, how are they not freezing?
“Auntie Cora is going to be so embarrassed,” I whisper to Rafe in my arms, who smiles at me and makes me laugh. “We are never going to let her live this down, are we, little baby!?”
Cora blinks awake then, looking blearily around her as she lifts her head. Roger is still senseless to the world, fully asleep beside her.
“What?” Cora murmurs, still looking around for a moment before glancing up at me and the baby. Then, as reality snaps back to her, she gasps and clutches the blanket tight to her chest.
“Morning, sister,” I say, smiling wickedly down at her. “Missing something?” And then I pull her bra out from behind my back.
“Ella!” she gasps, reaching for it, though I pull it away from her.
“What!” I laugh, enjoying every second of this. “It’s not like you were keeping it safe – I found this ten feet away, tossed at the foot of the RV! It’s the first thing I saw at the bottom of the steps!”
“No, you didn’t!” she growls in response, reaching for it again.
“Did too!” I laugh, tossing it to her now and shaking my head with glee. ” Soooo,” I tease, “did you guys have a good nighttttt?”
Cora just glares up at me as she struggles to get her bra back on without dropping the blanket. After she closes the clasp behind her back she smacks Roger on the ribs; he wakes with a gasp as she glances anxiously towards the RV.
“Wake up,” Cora hisses. “Put your damn pants on before everyone sees -”
“Oh,” I say, still grinning gleefully at him. “Everyone’s already seen, sis. No reason to be ashamed now.”
Cora glares up at me, blushing hard. “Hey, Ella,” Roger says, sitting up and giving me a wide grin, completely unabashed to have been found naked and in a compromised position with my sister. “Is there any coffee?”
“There is!” I say, giving him a wide false grin. But then I let it fall instantly from my face, shifting into a glare.”
But none for you.”
“What!?” he asks, frowning. “Why?” Cora ignores the conversation, reaching for the scattered pieces of her clothing and pulling them on as discreetly as she can.
“Because!” I exclaim. “If you two were going to go all Survivor on us and sleep out here, you could have at least told us so that we could have taken the big bed!”
“No way,” Cora says, standing now in her bra and underwear and tossing the blanket over Roger to cover him up. She points a finger at me before walking a few feet away to grab her jeans. “I told you I don’t want you and Sinclair doing weird things in my bed.”
“You abandoned the bed!” I exclaim. ” The bed is up for grabs! I now claim the bed!”
“Nope!” she shouts over her shoulder, stumbling a little as she steps into her pants and starts to pull them up. “We have dibs forever dibs on the bed, whether we want to use it or not.”
I gasp at her, appalled at her selfishness, as Roger gets to his feet and wraps the blanket around his hips, tucking it in like a towel. “I’m getting coffee,” he murmurs, flashing Cora a grin before striding for the RV’s door, ignoring the pieces of his own clothing scattered around the fire. “It’s way too early for sister wars.”
I laugh at him and walk to Cora’s side, bending on my way to grab her tshirt and hand it to her. “So,” I say, smiling widely at her as she scowls at me and pulls her shirt over her head. “You never answered my question. Did you have funnnn last night?”
“Let’s just go,” she says, turning
towards the RV and ignoring me even though she can’t hide the happy smile I see on her face. “The sooner we get to the temple, the sooner we get you off this line of questioning.”
“You did!” I laugh, gleeful, chasing my sister to the RV’s door. “You totally did! Come on, Cora! Tell me everything!”
We have a very cheerful morning after that, with everyone teasing Roger and Cora, and Cora blushing and covering her face with her hands a lot, and Roger refusing to be ashamed and happily drinking his coffee while still dressed in nothing but the blanket wrapped around his hips.
Even Henry gets in on it, making Cora’s blush deepen by patting her on the shoulder and telling her that it’s okay that no woman can resist the sight of a Sinclair man in the moonlight –
Cora just groans deeply at that and stands up, stalking away to the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her as we all laugh, perhaps a little too hard.
“All right, Roger,” I say, still laughing and moving to take Rafe to the bedroom to change his diaper. “Joke’s over – put on some damn clothes.”
“No way,” he says, lounging back against the white booth of the kitchenette and grinning at me, his coffee still in his hand. “Have you felt this leather against your skin? It’s amazing-”
I just groan and roll my eyes, taking my baby away as Sinclair and Henry laugh, heading for the front of the RV so that we can get started.
As we drive, though, the mood in the RV gets noticeably darker. We all know, of course, that as the minute pass we’re getting close and closer to the temple. And even though we’re here for a good reason to visit our mother, to get some very necessary information – well? It’s…tense. Because we don’t know what that information is.
Cora grows the quietest, not even wanting to play any board games or cards as noon slips by. So I just take her hand, the baby curled in my other arm, and sit quietly with her. Waiting.
Sinclair starts to slow the RV at around two o’clock, glancing back over his shoulder. “We’re close now,” he informs us, his face impassive. I know that he’s aware of the tension, but he lets Cora have her space to process her emotions.
Cora simply nods and we all sit quietly as Sinclair gets the RV as close as he can. But, unfortunately, the temple was designed to only be approached on foot something about a sacrifice to the Goddess? I don’t know.
But either way, as we all step out of the RV at the base of a series of stone steps that winds slowly upwards and out of our sight through the forest. I know that each of us feels the tension.
“Will you be all right here, dad?” Sinclair asks quietly, putting a hand on his father’s shoulder once Henry uses the lift to lower himself to the ground so that he can see us off.
“I’ll be fine,” he says with a small smile. Then he reaches out to touch Rafe’s little foot, hanging free from the baby carrier that’s strapped to my chest. “Are you sure you don’t want to leave the little one?”
“I don’t think I’m ever letting him out. of my sight again, Henry,” I say quietly, dipping my head to plant a little kiss on Rafe’s head. Rafe gurgles pleasantly, blowing bubbles between his tiny pink lips. I can’t help but smile when I look at him.
“Well,” Henry says, folding his hands in his lap. “That, I understand. Good luck. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
We each bend to give Henry a kiss before we all turn towards the steps. I take Cora’s hand as Roger starts to climb, taking the lead. Sinclair, on some Alpha instinct to protect the most vulnerable members of his pack, falls behind.
“You ready for this?” I ask.
“As much as I’m gonna be,” Cora sighs, glancing at me with a little smile. And then, after she takes a deep breath, we start to climb the stairs on what promises to be a long, long hike.
